While Earth faces an eventual demise in a few billion years due to the sun’s transformation into a red giant, the immediate threat comes from human-induced climate change. Experts suggest that in about 1.3 billion years, extreme heat caused by the sun’s evolution will render Earth uninhabitable, leading to the evaporation of oceans and the eventual destruction of the atmosphere. Humans, and complex life in general, are highly sensitive to temperature changes, with dangerous wet-bulb thresholds approaching rapidly. The next hundred years are crucial, as unchecked climate change could drive various species, including humans, to extinction long before the sun’s natural life cycle consumes the planet.
Earth’s end: A distant solar demise and a more immediate climate crisis.
